Which is better, RED RIVER or THE SEARCHERS?

[Nobody]

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[JerryB]

I saw the Searchers when it came out in the 1950's. It is still the best one.

[K1500]

Searchers. Rio Bravo is also a good one. You watching Red River on TCM right now?

[Nobody]

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[Nobody]

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[gak]

The Searchers is a lot of folks'--including critics'--favorite, and I'm with that too...but Red River gets to me for some reason. I think I've liked just about all of them. All I really know is that this thread is a good reminder I need to check them all out again!

[FWiedner]

Actually, I think Red River is better acting, John Wayne makes a good crazy mean ess-o-bee, but the cinematography and epic story in The Searchers is better.

I liked the James Arness version of Red River from 1988 too, but it wasn't as good as the 1948 version.

[Old Savage]

The best one is She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. And I don't like movies where the hero gets killed.

[Old Savage]

Rio Bravo and El Dorado appear to be the same movie with different characters. John Ford said no - what would you expect him to say.

[K1500]

Rio Bravo and El Dorado appear to be the same movie with different characters. John Ford said no - what would you expect him to say.

They are. Rio Lobo is essentially the same as well. IMO, Rio Bravo is the best (and the first in sequence). El Dorado is a close second, and Rio Lobo is pretty bad. Rio Bravo is one of the finest movies ever made.

[Old Savage]

Ford said something about Rio Lobo in that regard but it seems they just excised a portion of the plot. Interesting to me to see the same movie made with different supporting characters and Wayne the same.

[Blaine]

I liked Searchers, but JW sure was a jerk until right at the end..... The Cowboys is my favorite, and Green Beret

[RIHMFIRE]

The Searchers is my Favorite...
But.....I like em all!
from the "b" stuff right up to the Shootist!
top ten westerns by JW
1. Searchers
2. Rio Bravo
3. She wore a yellow ribbon.
4. The man who shot liberty valance
5. Angel and the bad man
6. Eldarado
7. Tall in the saddle
8. Rooster Cogburn...
9. Red River
10. Rio Grande.
HM. Every Christmas morning I watch "The Three Godfathers"
None Western favorite........Quiet Man
War movie....Sands of Iwo Jima....

[Buck Elliott]

Betweeen the two, there is no "better..." they're different, and people see them differently, based on their own life philosophy and experience.. I like them both, for different reasons.. It could be argued that both brought out the same hardness in characters played by John Wayne..
Of the Ford Cavalry trilogy, "She wore a Yellow Ribbon" is my sentimental favorite, with "Fort Apache" a close second, and "Rio Grande" not far behind..
fWIW, Ford didn't make El Dorado, and worked to fill in on Rio Bravo... Those were Howard Hawks' projects...

[L_Kilkenny]

The best one is She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. And I don't like movies where the hero gets killed.

I'll have to agree with this although I may put Rio Bravo first since I'm also a big Dean Martin fan. So I'll call a tie for top spot between those 2. My take on The Searchers is that it may be the best "movie" on a number of fronts but it's also one of JW's I'm least likely to watch. There are lots of great movies that I find about as enjoyable as a tooth ache and that's one of em. Red River would make my top 3 or 4 but not 1 or 2.

The one I'm most likely to watch when I need a pick me up.........McCLintock.

LK

[Fiddler]

Some actors in those days really had it made.
Movie after movie, John Wayne, Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Bette Davis, and a few others basically played just one character: themselves!
Just change the period costume (Mongol raider, cowboy, or WWII uniform) and you have John Wayne through the ages.
Musta been an easy gig!

[rangerider7]

The Searchers then Red River. Can't beat them.

[Old Savage]

I stand corrected on the Ford / Hawks reference - thanks for the info.

[grouse]

Both good movies & I hate to rate things. When a movie or anything else gets to a certain level of excellence I call it "hitting the level" & a lot of JW hits the level.

In the Searchers Wayne plays a hard very driven man & when folks say Wayne was a poor actor I tell them to watch the Searchers. Wayne morfs from a bitter driven man on a desprate mission to the compassionate carring Uncle that that lived inside the dark obsessed Ethan.

Only a great actor could have pulled of that role!

I like "The man who shot Liberty Valance" as well. The short scene where Wayne tells Stewart how he killed Valance is so classic. In that short scene Wayne shows that his charater Tom Doniphon has lost everything His future his girl his self respect. Again no actor living or dead could have done that scene half as well.

Terrorism was coming to live in our world in the 1970's & Wayne showed the world how the U.S.A. should deal with it in "Big Jake".

Guess I could go on & on but needless to say there will never be another John Wayne.....

[Lastmohecken]

The Searchers is probably a finer movies, but I like Red River better and I more inclined to watch it again and again.

Rio Bravo was made by Hawks as a counterpart to High Noon, because Hawks didn't like High Noon because the people didn't help much, but if you watch Rio Bravo, you will see that Wayne had more people to help, or trying to help. I seen this in a Howard Hawks special on TV.

For B movies, one movie I can watch again and again is "Tall in the Saddle" I just love that little ol movie.

[1894c]

RED RIVER.. if you disagee we'll have to shoot you, then pray over you...isn't that right Mr. Dunsten... :)

[FWiedner]

I've always thought of Rio Bravo as a 'B' movie, just because of the Ricky Nelson part.

It's like casting Justin Bieber for a part in True Grit.

[Nobody]

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[Buck Elliott]

Sorry... Brando is one of my least favorites.. His runaway performance as the sociopathic "regulator" in The Missouri Breaks left me with the feeling that he was fairly intimately acquainted with that personna...